No Excuse to vote against Violence Against Women Act

Let me make this perfectly clear as a survivor of domestic violence by two perpetrators. This country needs to stand up against criminals no matter what household title they have.

My Dad was a violent alcoholic until I was 13. He beat up my oldest brother most of the time, threatened my Mom and verbally abused all of us. He should have be arrested many times. By the grace of God all of us survived and my Dad stopped drinking then spent the rest of his life trying to make up for it. Still nothing could reverse the damage done to all of us. I forgave him but the rest of my family never really did.

My ex-husband was another story. We were not even married two years. 18 months after the day we got married, he came home one night and decided I should die. He started punching me and chasing me around the apartment while I fought back. Finally he got be on the floor, got on top of me punched me some more and then his hands were on my throat. Our landlady banged on the door screaming she had already called the police.

The officers took him to jail and he was out the next day. After all, it was just domestic violence. I got a restraining order but that did no good. That was over 30 years ago and things have changed but not by much. He was allowed to stalk me, and ruin my life but what got me was that when the judge order me to pay his healthcare coverage he topped that off with granting my ex-husband a divorce under cruelty because I fought back when he was trying to kill me.

Senate gives Violence Against Women Act another try
A new version of the bill dropped a provision that helped House Republicans block it last year [UPDATED]
BY JILLIAN RAYFIELD
JAN 23, 2013

Though House Republicans blocked the Violence Against Women Act last year, the Senate is not giving up. A new version of the bill, co-authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, seeks to add pressure to House Republican leadership to reauthorize the law, which stalled and expired in September 2011, for the first time ever.

“This lifesaving legislation should be a top priority of the new 113th Congress,” Leahy said in a statement. “It is our hope that the Senate will act quickly to pass this strong, bipartisan bill to help all victims of domestic and sexual violence.”

“The Violence Against Women Act has helped countless victims of domestic and relationship violence for nearly 20 years,” Crapo said. “The path to reauthorization in the 113th Congress begins with reintroduction, and I look forward to working with Senator Leahy and my colleagues on compromise language that can garner the necessary support in both the Senate and House to pass this critical legislation.”
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Women are getting more and more equal treatment in this country and that is a wonderful thing but equality is not happening in too many houses. Don't let women go back to the dark days of what I went through. Home is the one place where we are supposed to feel safe.

To the women out there, my second marriage has lasted over 28 years now and I can tell you that just because one person treated you so badly, that person was a criminal and needed to face the punishment for his actions. You are worth of love but while it is hard to believe it, you are. My husband proved that to me and still does now.